


understanding, in a way, that we're lost in a masquerade

by nosecoffee



Series: everyone knows, but pretends that they don't see [2]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Ancient curses, Angst, Asexual Character, Asexual Jughead, Asexuality, Because I Couldn't Resist, Continuation of my 50's Dream AU, Curse AU, F/F, He could murder me and I'd say thanks, Hurt/Comfort, I don't know how libraries work forgive me, I know I said I wasn't Twin Peaks-ing it, Jellybean is an honorary member of the Serpents, Library Mazes, M/M, Mild Horror, Plot Twist because I'm evil, River Curse, Riverdale's a fucked up town, Some Fluff, Taking a literal bullet for your signif, Turns out I lied, i love Jughead so much, some making out, thank you for your time, to be frank, tragic background dad-shipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-15 06:51:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10551916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosecoffee/pseuds/nosecoffee
Summary: "So, you're telling me that there is magic in Riverdale, and the doctors at the hospital put our dramatic, scary, Inception-esque shared-dream experience down to drugs?"Archie nods. "That's exactly what we're telling you."Veronica throws up her hands. "I don't fucking believe this town."





	1. i cross over borders but i'm still there now

**Author's Note:**

> Title from 'Masquerade' by The Carpenters
> 
> Chapter title from 'Anthem' from Chess
> 
> I don't even know, guys.
> 
> It's mostly my fault, but some blame can fall on Kayden and Parker, as always.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this, I guess.

"Dumb move on his part."

It's two weeks after _The Incident_ and they're all sitting in the classroom Betty commandeered in the name of _The Blue and Gold._

Unfortunately, right now, it's just being used by them during study hall, when they should be studying, but are instead speculating over just how dumb Jason Blossom was.

"It's surprising that Cheryl is still with us." Archie observes, and, honestly, Veronica zoned out, so she has _zero_ idea as to what they're talking about.

"Serves him right, really. I thought he knew better, being a Blossom and all. I thought they were the biggest believers in the curse." Betty says and that's when Veronica thinks _what?_

"I'm sorry," Veronica says, raising her hand, "I'm almost afraid to ask, but _what fucking curse?"_

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot there was a world outside of Riverdale that doesn't legitimately just go around having scary shared-dreams and talking about curses like they're commonplace." Jughead comments from his place on the desk.

"They are here." Archie grumbles.

Betty sits up and clears her throat in the comfy swivel chair she stole from the teachers lounge and never gave back. "Basically, many, _many_ years ago, around the time that Riverdale was founded, a witch cursed Sweetwater River, which, you know, pretty much circles the entire town, so that no one who had the intent to leave ever could."

"With a few exceptions, of course," Jughead interrupts. "Your mother and father, Archie's mother, my sister and my mother. It's all about blood or some shit like that."

Betty flicks the back of Jughead's neck. "Anyway," she continues, "the curse dictates that if a person were to potentially make it out of Riverdale, they wouldn't make it very far. The magic of the curse is only binding to most inhabitants of Riverdale. There are a select few who have the right balance in them that leaves them free of the curse, and they can come and go as they please. It's all about their blood, like Jug said. Jason might have thought he was one of them."

"So, you're telling me that there is magic in Riverdale, and the doctors at the hospital put our dramatic, scary, Inception-esque shared-dream experience down to _drugs?"_

Archie nods. "That's _exactly_ what we're telling you."

Veronica throws up her hands. "I don't fucking _believe_ this town."

Betty nods. “Yeah, it’s pretty unbelievable.”

Veronica purses her lips. “So, about this curse.”

“Yeah?” Archie replies, giving her an interested look over the top of his phone.

“How much do we know? About the curse, I mean.”

He bites his lip a little, responding, “The basics. Pretty much what we just told you.”

Veronica raises an eyebrow. “Is there more to know?”

“Oh, definitely,” Jughead laughs. “Curses always come with fineprint.”

“What the fuck. How many curses have been put on this dumb town?” Archie shrugs.

“Too many to count. Anyway, you can find the written copy in the library, somewhere. I’m sure Betty knows where to find it. It’ll be in the restricted section. That’s only open to members.”

Veronica turns to the blonde. “Tell me you’re a member at your public library, this would make a fantastic Twitter post.”

“I _was,_ but mom took my card away. Guess we’re gonna have to break into the library.” Betty sighs.

“What the fuck.” Veronica whispers into her hands and laughs a little at the blatant obscurity of this town.

“We’ll meet you at Pop’s afterwards?”

“Sounds great.”

~

FP knows the night'll be a bust when little Cheryl Blossom steps through the doors of the bar.

"Oh shit," he swears and ducks off his stool behind someone.

Jellybean looks down at him from where she's seated on the bar top. She shoots him a look over her glass of pink lemonade that says _'what did you do this time?'_

He wishes he'd never given her a reason to look at him like that.

FP knows the moment Jellybean understands because she grins evilly and yells, "Hey, Blossom!" Across the bar.

He actually hates her.

FP gives up the game and sits back up on his stool as Cheryl arrives by the bar. He raises her eyebrows at her, and she gapes.

"You!" Cheryl hisses.

"Me." FP agrees.

"Him." Jellybean adds and takes a sip of her lemonade through her blue swirly straw.

"You're-you're-!" Cheryl splutters and he smiles a little.

"I'm? What am I?" FP questions. Jellybean flicks the back of his neck.

"Don't tease her." She scolds and finishes off her lemonade with a loud slurp. The bartender quickly replaces it and Jellybean smiles brightly at him. (The Serpents actually really fucking love Jellybean.)

"You're the one making shady deals with Hermione Lodge!" Cheryl finishes.

FP takes a sip of his drink. "'Made'. Past tense."

She rolls her eyes in response. "'Cause that makes _such_ a difference."

"What are you even doing in here? Scratch that, what are you doing this side of the tracks? Aren't you underage?" Cheryl points to Jellybean, currently chewing on a peanut.

"Isn't she?" Jellybean scowls and twists to show the back of her too-big leather jacket.

"Hey, I'm an honorary member!" She protests.

Cheryl turns to FP and crosses her arms. "Starting 'em early, hm?"

"Oh don't." And he'd usually have a better response but the last week or so has been hell.

"I thought you'd have a witty comeback for that." Cheryl comments, taking a seat on the stool beside his, Jellybean sitting on the bar between them.

"I've had a long week." FP tells her, tiredly. Jellybean ruffles his hair, affectionately.

Cheryl looks between them, with an almost bewildered look. "Who even are you?"

"FP Jones." He says and holds out his hand in greeting. Cheryl doesn't take it.

"Jughead's old man?" She questions. Jellybean gives her a suspicious look.

"The very same." FP agrees.

She laughs. "Oh wow. What a story."

Jellybean and FP have a nonverbal, split-second conversation. "Go around telling that and you may find yourself in an unenviable position."

Cheryl narrows her eyes at him. "Are you threatening me?" She questions, voice low, in a tone that he assumes is supposed to sound dangerous.

He shrugs. "More or less."

Cheryl looks a little taken-aback. "That's strange." She muses. "Usually I'm the one doing the threatening."

"Well," FP responds, "you're on our turf now. You ever seen _Lord of the Rings,_ Little Red?"

"What?" She says, as if she hadn't, and she doesn't know where the conversation is going. FP grins.

_"'You have no power here'."_

Jellybean laughs.

~

"Considering Grundy's car and pretty much everything that followed that, I shouldn't be surprised, but how exactly did you know that this specific entrance existed at all?" Veronica questions as they climb through a hidden door in the enormous stained-glass-window that is framed by the rest of the Riverdale Public Library.

"I've lived in this town for years. I practically grew up in this building. I know every nook and cranny." Betty responds, closing it gently and leading Veronica down the windowsill, to a ladder and into the fourth floor stacks.

Veronica scowls a little at the atrium-like balcony by the stairs. "Why would a library need a chandelier?"

"Decoration?" Betty suggests, nonchalantly.

"Unnecessary?" Veronica replies in a similar tone.

"Huh." Betty says, and they begin to descend the stairs. The ground floor, four floors below where the entered is where they stop and Veronica sighs, long and deep, because she just knows it's going to be a long night.

"Alright, Sherlock, where's the book?" Veronica whispers, too paranoid about CCTV and silent alarms that alert the police to their entrance to actually speak normally.

"We should start looking in History, Non-Fiction." Betty replies and takes Veronica's hand, gently. Veronica winces a little bit, pulling away, but following after the blonde.

"Good, good." She murmurs as they head across the library.

It's not that she doesn't like Betty - because god does she like Betty - it's that only two weeks ago Veronica had seen her gutted by her own sister, and was dragged away while Betty took her dying breaths, staring into Veronica's eyes with a look that said _why didn't you help me?_

Of course, the date would help - she'd thought that, at least, but maybe that was the problem. Betty had been flippant, sarcastic, and maybe she thought Veronica was only doing it out of sympathy.

Veronica doesn't want to hurt her with her good intentions again.

“I found it!” Betty whispers excitedly, pulling a dusty, red leather-bound book off the shelf and shining her flashlight on the cover. _An Extensive Guide to Riverdale and Its Curses_ shines in gold lettering and Veronica barely holds back a snort.

“If this has been in the library this whole time, why has nobody tried to break the curse before?” Veronica inquires. Betty shrugs.

“I don’t think anyone actually cared. Everyone in this town is just crazy enough to be content here.” She replies and opens the book, coughing violently as dust flies up, visible in the light of Betty’s torch.

It takes her only a few minutes to flip through the book and turn to Veronica with a disappointed look on her face. “I can’t find the page on the details of the River Curse.” Betty turns to book for Veronica to see. “Someone tore the page out.”

“So either someone knew we were coming, or someone’s tried before.” Veronica says, taking the book from Betty's hands. Something catches her eye, right in the crease of the book, where the remnants of a ripped page is still sitting. “Hang on, there’s something written in the corner here.”

“G2, SE-H, R-4, SH-3." Betty reads aloud.

"What does that mean?" Betty puffs out her cheeks (the way she usually does when she's thinking) (Jughead runs his thumb along the bottom of his nose when he thinks and Archie runs a hand through his hair).

"I think it might be where the person hid it." She states and Veronica hides the beginnings of a smile behind her hand as Betty leans over the book, focused eyes scanning the vaguely familiar scrawl. "Level G2, section H, row 4, shelf 3. I think."

"Now that's just sensible." Veronica states and snaps the book closed once Betty's pulled away. She slips it into Betty's backpack, just in case they missed something, and follows Betty to the stairs that will take them to level G2.

The stacks in level G2 are nuts, because these are basically the town’s archives and not really open to the public. It only takes them a few minutes of searching to find Section H and then it's smooth sailing from there.

“Hey! Over here! " Betty calls from a few shelves over and Veronica curses, running to get to her. _"The River Curse of 1941.”_

"So you found it?" Veronica pants as Betty thumbs a very worn-looking page.

“This is it!” Betty scans the page, “Yeah, yeah, witch, malicious, blah, blah - we know all this.”

“Hang on, look at the fifth paragraph - I can’t believe a curse has more than five paragraphs.” Veronica mutters and Betty giggles a little. Veronica wonders why betty can be so relaxed while searching for the fineprint of a curse 75 years running, but on a date be so closed off.

"Fineprint, I told you." Betty whispers.

"What's it say?" Veronica peers over Betty's shoulder, an almost impossible feat, even in her heels, and stars at the spider web thin lettering. "Jesus on a tricycle."

 _"'The curse can only be lifted by four; one of free blood, one of caged; one of new blood, one of aged.'"_ Betty recites. _"'Those who possess such blood shall be warded off from the river, until such a time when the moon is right and the river has claimed enough lives that it runs satisfied in its sweetened water'._ Heh."

"Keep reading, nerd." The raven-haired girl laughs.

"Right." Betty agrees. _"'They will be tested, thrice, tests of resilience and intelligence and strength, and once proven worthy, the spell will be broken, and all released'."_

Veronica giggles a little. "I can't believe you just said 'thrice'."

"Shut your cake-hole." Betty laughs too, and punches Veronica in the shoulder. When their giggles quiet, Veronica looks over the page again.

 _"'Tested'._ Do you think..." She trails off, memories of fire and screams and a tree smashing in the windshield of Archie's pickup truck flashing through her mind.

"The dream..." Betty whispers and her eyes widen. She looks from Veronica to the paper before hastily stuffing the page in her backpack and taking Veronica's hand.

"Archie and Jughead-" Veronica begins, and betty tosses her phone back to Veronica.

"Call them!" She says and leads them out of H section.

"Uh, Betty?" Veronica calls, quietly. "Your phone's dead."

"What?" Betty turns, a confused expression gracing her features. "No it isn't. I charged it before we left."

Veronica hands Betty her phone back, taking her flashlight from her. She glances around, bewildered. "Betty, where the fuck is the exit?"


	2. he ran from himself (which was mighty far to run)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What are you saying?" Cheryl asks, tears slowing. She sniffs, wipes her nose with the wrist of her sweater.
> 
> "Everyone's got skeletons in their closets, Cheryl. Yours just happen to be out in the open, and yours just happen to be the skeleton of your brother."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from 'Simple Joys' from Pippin
> 
> There may be some triggering stuff in this chapter, so check the bottom notes for warnings.

They actually haven't really been alone together since before the whole scary Shared-Dream Debacle.

Jughead thinks he maybe wants it to stay that way, but it's actually too late by the time Veronica and Betty have headed off to break into the library.

He really doesn't want to have the discussion he knows will come up sooner or later. He doesn't want to have to write off the kiss in the dream, either.

(Veronica's been raising her eyebrows and mouthing talk to him across rooms for almost a week, and Jughead's still avoiding it.)

"Why can't we help them out?" Archie asks, before blithely taking a sip of his strawberry milkshake.

"Because, _Daphne,_ if we go in with the whole Scooby Gang we're bound to get caught.” Jughead says. Archie rolls his eyes at the nickname. “It's easier if it's just the two of them."

The redhead purses his lips. "I thought you and Betty were sleuthing buddies."

"She's exploring new options." He replies, a little confused. (Wasn’t Archie the one to comfort him, to talk him down against the chest of drawers when Jughead began to spiral at the thought that the dream might be real, even for a split second?)

He peers at Jughead. "You're jealous." Archie states.

"I am _not_ jealous." Jughead snaps, an edge in his tone.

There’s a tense pause that follows, silence swallowing them into a melancholy air.

Archie breaks it, never one to stay quiet for long.

"Why am I Daphne?" He asks, timidly, but obviously trying his level best to fix whatever broke between them, what continues to break.

Jughead shrugs, sipping on his coffee (black and sweet). "You're ginger and prone to being almost completely useless in bad situations."

"Fuck off.” Archie laughs. “Daphne’s so cool in the movies. You saying that is offensive to Sarah Michelle Gellar and everything she stands for.”

“You saying that offends me entirely and makes me rethink our friendship.” Jughead tells him, laughing a little through the statement.

“Jughead no! Please, I’d be lost without you!” Archie responds, laughing a little louder than Jughead himself (the other, few patrons, of Pop’s all look like they could give less of a shit and Jughead’s thankful for that).

“Your sarcasm is a gift to the world, Archibald.” Jughead rolls his eyes in response to Archie’s jokingly-suggestive eyebrow-wiggle.

A beat. Their burgers are delivered by a tired looking Freshman, who nods at Jughead in thanks when he hands her a twenty.

“If I’m Daphne, who does that make you?” Archie asks as he picks up his burger.

It takes him 0.2 of a second to respond with, “Velma.”

Archie snorts into his milkshake and Jughead hands him a napkin with little fuss. “Right, ‘cause you’re short, cute, and smart.” The redhead tells him.

“I’m not short.” Jughead protests, appalled. “I’m two centimetres taller than you.”

Archie smirks, “Because two centimetres makes _such_ a difference.”

“It does.” Jughead agrees and they fall into a more comfortable silence then before, finishing off their burgers and grinning at each other between bites. It’s almost uncanny how similar this is compared to how they were before Grundy, before everything.

“You think I’m cute?” Archie smiles softly.

“Who doesn’t?” Is the reply and his tone is so sure, the protest that rises in Jughead’s throat dies there.

~

"You know, you never answered my question." FP says and watches Cheryl look up from her phone, startled. It hasn't been too long since their vaguely morbid conversation ebbed away and Jellybean went to play pool with some of the Serpents, but she still looks tired. Much too tired for someone her age to look.

"What question?" She asks. Her voice is gritty, and it may just be from the way-too-sugary-drink she's sipping, but it may just be sleep, stuck deep in her throat.

"'What are you doing here?'" He reiterates. Cheryl shrugs a little.

"Well, everyone goes through a rebellious phase in their lives." She tells him, Any other person might have believed it. FP isn't just another person. He knows the sad look that hides in the shadows of her dark eyes, knows the secrets that wrap themselves up in the bruise-dark bags under her eyes, carefully concealed with makeup that isn't _quite_ good enough.

"This seems a little less rebellious and a little more tired." He tells her.

Cheryl frowns. "Tired?"

He shrugs, a little heavier than hers had been, but just as telling. "Like you've tried everywhere else but you just ended up here."

She quirks her eyebrows, sticks her tongue between her teeth and bites momentarily. "You wanna know?" Cheryl inquires.

"D'you reckon I'd ask in the first place if I didn't?" FP counters. Something sparkles in her dark red smile. She's much too young to have to wear that kind of armour, deep crimson like the judgment she's obviously fighting hard to shields herself from.

"Fair." Cheryl sighs, staring at the counter of the bar. "Everyone hates me."

"Hard pressed to argue with that." The words are out of his mouth before he can filter them out and Cheryl purses her lips - like she was expecting this - standing.

"This was a mistake." She states and makes to go.

"Wait, _fuck,_ Cheryl. I'm sorry." FP says and she turns, sadness in her expression. She points at him with her index finger, the nail painted a sharp laser red.

"Don't say shit like that." She tells him. FP grimaces. This isn't even his kid and he can't help but fuck her up. No wonder Jughead hardly meets his eye anymore.

"Okay. Please, continue." He says. Cheryl sits down heavily on her bar stool.

"It's not just my supposed friends." Cheryl says, just-shy of really admitting something.

"Sure, as they are 'supposed'." FP agrees. Cheryl nods.

"It's my family." There's a hitch in her breath as she says it, something rotten and sour forcing wetness to her cheeks. "Jason was always the favourite. Now that he's gone, they see me, and they don't see the sweet person that he made me out to be."

"You saying your family hates you?" He asks, watches her wipe at the rapidly darkening tears with the wrist of her black form-fitting sweater.

"I'm saying they hate who I've become." Cheryl admits, not quite a sob in her words. "They hate the things I've done in his name, hate me in general for helping him towards his imminent demise. Kinda makes me hate myself, just because all their reasoning is so..."

"Reasonable?" FP suggest and she laughs, wetly.

"Sure."

"Grief makes you do terrible things, Cheryl." He says and scoots a little closer. She looks up sharply.

"How would you know?" Cheryl spits, as if he's suddenly an enemy.

"I live it." FP watches her be taken aback, as if she wasn't expecting such a final, deadpan answer. "You know my son hardly speaks to me anymore because of just how badly I continually fuck up? You know my wife left me, and my daughter ran away from home just so she could see me again?"

"What are you saying?" Cheryl asks, tears slowing. She sniffs, wipes her nose with the wrist of her sweater.

"Everyone's got skeletons in their closets, Cheryl. Yours just happen to be out in the open, and yours just happen to be the skeleton of your brother."

There's a beat of silence as they both take a sip of their drinks - FP's on water now, because he has to drive Jellybean home later.

"I just needed to get away." Cheryl whispers to the bottom of her glass.

"That makes sense." FP nods.

"Thank you," she whispers, giving him what he thinks is as close to a smile as she'd ever give him, "for understanding, even if it was in your weirdly condescending way."

"My weirdly condescending pleasure." He says, and feels something warm in his chest when she laughs. (Is this what he missed when he was a terrible father to his own children? Is this what people meant when they said they'd fight tigers for their children? Why is it that she isn't good enough for her parents, and he isn't good enough for his children, and yet they find this common ground? FP doesn't expect to ever feel this way again.)

~

"What's that noise?" Veronica whips around, scared as hell, now. Well, she was scared before, but now she knows she's an integrated part of an elaborate curse, 75 years running, and she's standing in the basement of a library (her only company a girl who does not love her), their only light from a small, key ring torch, their phones dead, and an ominous noise coming from the direction they just came from.

"What noise?" She asks, her voice trembling. She's trembling. God, why did she let Betty talk her into this? She should have just kept her dumb mouth shut.

"The flapping noise." Betty clarifies and puts her phone back in her pocket, turning in a slow circle.

"Oh god," Veronica whispers as she starts to hear it, "this is like that one scene from _The Birds."_

"You've never actually seen _The Birds."_ Betty comments, and narrows her eyes as she looks over Veronica's shoulder, into the darkness of the stacks.

"Correct," the raven-haired girl agrees, "but you would have believed me if you didn't know. I'm convincing like that."

"It's getting closer." Betty murmurs.

"I don't want to wait to find out what it is; we need to find the exit." Veronica takes Betty's hand again, moving forward, through the stacks, even as it gets louder. Betty stops again, breathing harsh and Veronica wants to strangle her, or scream, or both.

"Wait!" Betty hisses. "What if it's the second test?"

"Wouldn't Archie and Jug have to be here, too, if it was?" Veronica asks.

"Maybe they're doing it separately?" Betty suggests, and turns towards the growing flapping noise that's making the _Kill Bill_ siren go off in Veronica's head.

"We don't have time for details-" Veronica begins and sees what Betty does, eyes wide, disbelieving. "Oh my god."

"Are those-?" Betty chokes on her words and Veronica grabs her arm, yanking her away from the converging-

"Books! Run!"

Betty matches her speed, almost immediately, as they twist and turn through the stacks, as they meet dead ends, and are still unable to find the exit that had been so clear before.

"I SWEAR WE DIDN'T HAVE TO NAVIGATE A MAZE OF BOOK SHELVES COMING IN!" Veronica pants as they run. Her feet are getting sore, but the flying books keep her running, because she actually doesn't want to know what will happen if they catch up.

"I think this is the second test!"

"And what the fuck would the goal of this be?"

"Don’t die!" Betty cries, pulling her backpack off her back and handing it off to Veronica, the page on the curse in her hand.

"Betty?" Veronica asks, putting the shoulder-straps of the backpack over her shoulders, leaving the bag ultimately strapped to her front.

"Ron, quick, go through my bag! Find a little pouch!" Veronica wrinkles her nose, not far off kicking her heels off and praying.

"Betty! There's no time for this!" She calls, Betty pulling ahead a little in her sensible Converses.

"Just do it!" Betty yells, face pink in exhaustion and determination. "It'll be full of what looks like cocaine!"

"BETTY WHAT THE FUCK-" Veronica screams, rooting through the bag.

"JUST DO IT!" The blonde screams back.

Veronica pants as she searches the bag, looking up every so often so that she doesn't run into a shelf. The books are further behind them then before, and good thing too, because she's starting to run out of breath.

"It's here!" Betty holds out a hand and takes the small, leather pouch from Veronica, immediately stuffing it into her bra.

"Pull the copy of Wizard of Oz out of my bag and pass it to me, but keep running!" Betty's muttering something incomprehensible under her breath, even as Veronica searches.

"What is going _on,_ Betty?" She asks instead of asking _'why do you have a pouch of cocaine and a copy of The Wizard of Oz in your bag and why do we need them?'_

"Ron, there's no time for questions-" the blonde protests, taking Veronica's arm as they skid around the corner. Veronica's very suddenly glad that the stacks reach the roof, because the books have to follow Betty and Veronica exactly through the maze.

"But there is time for weird ass instructions while we're being chased by carnivorous flying books?" The raven-haired girl questions, pulling a little hardback book from one of the back pockets of the bag.

"You don't know they're carnivorous!" Betty shouts.

"You're right, they could be peaceful, like fruit bats, or crazy, like the Monster Book of Monsters in Harry Potter! Take a fucking guess, Betty!" Veronica hands the book off to her.

"Just-" Betty groans in frustration and drags Veronica into a dead end. She opens the book to almost the very end - the bit where Glinda the Good tells her that she had the power to go home all along. Betty sprinkles a little of the White powder on the page and takes one of Veronica's free hands, placing it on the page.

"What are you doing?" Veronica asks, knowing soon the books would be upon them. She hopes that they're dumb enough to fly past their little dead end.

"This is the last of the old Cooper magic." Betty explains, in a way that says _this is very important._

"What's that supposed to mean?" The blonde doesn't answer, simply begins clicking her heels together.

"There's no place like home - Ronnie-" she whispers.

"They're catching up, Betty-" Veronica tells her anxiously.

"Click your heels together." Betty pleads. "Do it, please."

"Betty, what if you're wrong-" Betty takes Veronica's free hand and squeezes it tight.

"I'm not wrong!" She hisses. "Believe that I'm not wrong! Click your heels together and think of home!"

Veronica, aware of just how close the flying books are getting, starts clicking her heels together, whispering 'there's no place like home' under her breath.

An explosion of white light blinds her, and Veronica hopes this isn't what death feels like. Hopes this is how Dorothy felt when she woke up.

~

"Archie?" They finished their food ages ago, but they promised Betty and Veronica to meet them here, so they’ve stayed. Archie looks up from his phone, eyes a little unfocused.

"What d'you need?" He responds. Jughead furrows his eyebrows, a little frustrated that he went this far only to stop at the last second.

"It's...look, I feel like something's off with you.” He says, eventually. “Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.” Archie assures him, smiling softly. “How about you? Are _you_ okay?"

Jughead snorts, humorlessly. "I don't think _'okay'_ is in my repertoire."

“Oh.” Archie makes that face that he saves especially for moments when Jughead goes a little far in his so-called ‘sardonic humour’. "Jug?"

"Yeah?" His voice is a little shaky now. He hates it when he does that to Archie, gives him reason to worry about Jughead.

"How upset were you when Betty died? In the dream, I mean." Jughead is taken aback.

"You were there.” Jughead tells him, tone confused. “I had a breakdown, and hallucinated that Jellybean was there with us. You broke down the door, and dragged Veronica and I out to your pickup.”

"Oh." Archie nods, looking at the tabletop with an expression that Jughead recognises. He’s only ever seen it once, when Archie fell out of his treehouse when they were nine, and got a concussion.

"How do you not remember that?" Jughead asks, concerned now. The doctors had said that Jughead had hurt himself in the struggle of his ‘restless dreams’ but they hadn’t said anything about Archie.

"I don't know..." Archie bites his lip.

Jughead scoots forward and touches Archie’s hand lightly, with his own. "How much of the dream _do_ you remember?"

Archie seems to consider this. "Veronica slapping me, us making our escape, sitting in the car watching the house burn down.” The redhead sighs. “I remember that Veronica really wanted to drive into a tree and kill herself - and then I remember waking up."

"So you don't remember...?" Jughead trails off, thinking of Veronica’s pointed stares and, well, the memory itself.

"Remember what?" Archie cocks his head to the side, dark brown eyes searching Jughead’s face for a sign as to what Jughead’s referring to.

Jughead bites his lip and shakes his head. "It doesn't matter." He says, waving a dismissive hand. Archis catches it, warm in his own palm and places it flat down on the table, expression earnest and open.

"Obviously it does.” Archie states, voice low. “What don't I remember?"

"Something that happened right before we crashed the car." Jughead admits, reluctantly. If Archie doesn’t remember it (which is quite plain by now) Jughead doesn’t want to prompt it. Jughead doesn’t want the possible negative reaction that Archie could have against it.

"What?" Archie presses.

Jughead opens his mouth and then, catching sight of the rest of the diner over Archie’s shoulder, frowns. Where were the patrons he’d been worried about earlier?

"Jug, talk to me. If it's something I did, I'm sorry-" The lights shut off, along with the jukebox and Archie cuts off.

"What the fuck?" Jughead whispers, pulling away from Archie, standing up from the booth, and looking around. The diner is quiet and empty and dark. It’s not a sight he’s accustomed to.

"Uh..." Archie murmurs from the booth.

"What...?" Jughead shakes his head in confusion, in fear (because how could he not be fearful?), and walks over to Archie’s side of the booth, where Archie’s rising to his feet and shimmying away from the table.

"Why did the lights go out? Where is everyone?" He questions and Jughead puts a hand over Archie’s mouth.

"Sh. Keep your voice down." He says, and he can’t help but be suspicious. He watches Archie’s eyes widen, looking at something over Jughead’s shoulder that he cannot see, and pulls away from Jughead, altogether.

"Dad?" Archie asks, sounding bewildered. Jughead turns to find Archie staring at Fred, seated in a booth against the window, sitting straighter than Jughead believes he actually does, staring straight ahead, blankly. The way Betty’s family had in the dream...

"Archie, don't-!" Jughead feels a rush of cold dread run through his veins and he grabs for Archie who moves away, swiftly. Jughead ends up banging his hip into a table, sharp pain making him hiss.

"Dad? what are you doing here, where is everybody?" The redhead asks his father, making his way over to the man who turns his head to look, with unseeing eyes, at his son.

"Archie!" Jughead calls again and Archie looks over again, only to shake his head in confusion again.

"Mr. Jones?" He questions and Jughead has to whip around, only to see his own father seated in the booth they’d just abandoned, looking just as Fred had.

"Dad?" He whispers, utter confusion washing any other relevant, sensible thought from his mind.

 _"You play valiantly. But are you worthy?"_ Says a vaguely familiar voice, and it makes both boys spin to try and find the owner. There’s no one else in the diner that they can see.

"Who said that?" Archie calls, venturing towards the entrance of the diner, near to the counter.

Jughead follows him, and finds his gaze drift to a shape on the counter. "Archie...look." He whispers.

Lying on the counter, dark against the countertop, is a revolver.

It was not there before, Jughead knows, but then again, before there were other people in the diner. Now, it's just him, and Archie, and their stationary, estranged father’s. Almost like Betty's parents had been in the dream.

Jughead picks up the gun and opens the bullet chamber, spinning it around. "There's one bullet." He tells Archie, who’s eyes were wide and bright in the unnatural darkness that Pop's had fallen into. "Check the doors."

The voice sounds again, loud in their ears, leaving them unable to track its origins. _"It's awfully rude to run out of a party. Are you going to run out of a reunion too?"_

"What's going on?" Jughead breathes, as Archie tugs on the door, wincing as it doesn't budge.

"The doors are locked!" He calls, looking wild in the moonlight. Jughead shakes his head of it, though, when the voice speaks again, making his eyes water.

_"It is time for your test. One must die so the other three may live. You must decide."_

"Test?" Archie questions.

Jughead digs through his pocket, thinking to warn the girls, or ask from help from them. "My phone's dead." He states when it doesn’t wake up in his hand.

"So is mine." Archie tells him and looks up, expression conflicted and creased. "Test...I don't like this at all. I'm breaking us out."

_"Ah-ah-ah, that's not part of the deal. You want so bad to break the curse? You play by my rules. Don't, and you might well end up like you fathers."_

Jughead winces at the voice, rubbing his temples and looks to the roof. "Our fathers? What's that supposed to mean?"

Silence answers him. He huffs in annoyance.

"She's not responding." Archie tells him.

"Thanks Captain Obvious.” Jughead says. “It's the witch. She noticed that we're trying to break the River Curse. She's trying to stop us."

“Geez.” Archie sighs, making his way back over to Jughead, eyes wandering over to their father’s seated far from each other, looking almost like abandoned dolls in the moonlight.

"So, one of us has to die so that the rest of us can leave?" Jughead whispers, staring at the revolver, settled garishly out of place on the diners counter.

"Yeah." Archie agrees, seemingly wary of the expression he that Juhead knows is slowly making its way into his features.

"Well," the dark boy says, "that's an easy fix, then."

He picks the gun up, strides over to his father, cocks it, and points it straight as FP's head. FP doesn't even blink. Archie squeaks in surprise.

"Jug! What are you doing?" He cries, running over to Jughead and reaching for his wrist. Jughead shoves him with his shoulder and Archie shoves just as hard, pushing Jughead back into the corner of a table.

"Move out of the way, Arch,” he whispers, aiming the gun again, and exhaling deeply as Archie moves in front of the way again. “You know better than I do that he's got to be the one to kick the bucket, of all of us."

Archie looks less shocked than Jughead expected him to. "So you'd shoot your own father?" He asks, sounding a little outraged, a little sad.

"It's what he deserves.” He nods. “Everything he does is _poison._ Everything he does is _death."_ The words feel so true to him that they burn his throat as he speaks them.

"Jug, you don't mean this." Archie says, voice pleading. His eyes are, too.

Jughead scoffs, feeling a little outraged himself, that he’s put himself in this position. "I haven't meant anything like this before in my life; so you wouldn't know."

"You're not so dark that you'd kill your own father, in cold blood." The redhead whispers.

"I guess you really don't know me anymore." Jughead whispers back, moving forward.

"Don't.” Archie says, gravity in his voice, in his hands, as he touches Jughead, grips his shoulders. “I _do_ know you, I know how much you'd regret it, I know how hard you'd cry-"

Jughead shakes his head, tears threatening to make themselves known at the back of his raw throat, behind his tired eyes. "I don't want to hear this-"

_"Jug-"_

"You know he wasn't even there?” Jughead interrupts, pulling away from Archie, but lowering the gun. “When I woke up in hospital, he was off somewhere, getting pissed. He wasn't there. Jellybean was, but my own father wasn't."

"That's not a valid reason to blow his brains out, and you _know_ it." Says Archie, with conviction and fear.

"If he doesn't properly care for me, or my sister, who is still young and impressionable, what use is he? He's better six feet under." He’s so sure of this. He’d run himself into the ground for this. There are so many feelings he’s been repressing since waking up in the hospital, only to find the chair meant for his father being filled by his sister.

His sister who _wasn’t even supposed to be there._

"That's not-" Archie’s attempts seem half-hearted now, as he looks over his shoulder to the man in question.

"How would you know? Your father's always been there for you." Jughead snarls, lifting the gun once more, shaking hand around the handle, finger curled around the trigger.

"-Jug, I am _begging_ you not to do this." Jughead steps back, holding his arms out.

"And what do you propose instead?" He asks, much to Archie’s sudden ire.

"Just...just let me..." He stammers and walks forward, a little timidly, face unsure.

"Archie? What are you doing?" Jughead inquires and Archie takes the hand that Jughead’s holding the gun in.

"Just trust me." Archie replies, voice steadier now.

"Archie what are you doing,” Jughead whispers, even as the redhead raises the loaded revolver to his forehead, placing the barrel right between his eyes, the same place where bullet buried itself in Jason Blossom’s frontal lobe. “Please no, Archie-"

"Trust me, Jug." He murmurs, brown eyes, steady.

"Archie I can't let you do this-" Jughead protests, adrenaline driving his actions, because he can’t let this happen.

"It's okay." Archie says, attempting to assure him, but it just makes Jughead’s hysteria rise even more.

"No, it's not, please, there's got to be another way, just let me-" Now it’s him that’s pleading and - god - he hates this. Everything about this.

"Jug." The whisper of his name, clear, in a familiar voice is like a breath of fresh air. Jughead opens his eyes and brings his free hand up to cup Archie’s chin. It’s trembling. He meets Archie’s eyes. He’s crying.

A gasp wrenches itself from his lungs as a tear goes trailing down his own cheek. "...Archie, _I can't lose you."_

"If this is a test, if she wants to see us struggle and fight, if she wants to see one of us dead..." And he cuts off to exhale unevenly. Archie’s always been good at the ‘pretty crying’ thing. Jughead always envied him for that, but now he’s faced with a decision that he doesn’t know how to make.

"Are you sure?" He asks.

Archie shakes his head, dislodging Jughead’s hand. "No."

"Are you scared?" It’s a dumb question, but Jughead’s running on fear and adrenaline so Archie cannot blame him.

"How could I not be?" Archie laughs, hand holding sure around Jughead’s wrist.

"Do you really believe this will work?" That’s the real question.

"If not, I guess you'll just have to live with it." Archie shrugs.

"I don't like those odds at all." Jughead states, clearing his throat.

Achie grins at him. "Never tell me the odds."

"I love you." The dark boy says.

"...I know." The redhead responds, in kind.

Jughead squeezes his eyes shut and pulls the trigger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for gun violence and general gun stuff (I don't know how to tag, but just so you know, Archie gets Jughead to point a gun at his head and shoot).
> 
> Thank you for reading this chapter, last one should be up soon.


	3. yes, i'd rather hurt than feel nothing at all

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "My blood," he shakes his head as he says it, "I don't understand how I could be the one with aged blood. There's nothing wise about me."
> 
> She smiles a little. "You think being old makes you wise?" Ethel inquires.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from 'Need You Now' by Lady Antebellum
> 
> LAST CHAPTER AAAAAAAAAAY
> 
> (Just letting y'all know, I deleted all of this earlier, accidentally, so I made do with what I remembered, and it might not be as good as I wanted it to be).
> 
> anyways, I hope you enjoy!!!

Veronica opens her eyes and there is Betty, head bowed under the fluorescent streetlight, clicking her heels together. They are standing on the steps outside the library, holding _The Wizard of Oz_ that looks oddly charred now.

"Betty?" Veronica whispers and watches the blonde still, looking up with wide eyes.

"We survived?" Betty questions.

The raven-haired girl nods, grinning. "Looks that way."

"Thank _god,"_ Betty sighs, and pulls Veronica into a hug. Veronica only feels mildly suffocated. "I had no idea if that would actually work."

Veronica pulls back. _"What?"_

The blonde waves a dismissive hand, already skipping down the steps towards the asphalt of Raspberry Crescent. "Calm down, V. We need to warn the others."

"Shit." Veronica swears, following just as quickly, even if her feet _are_ aching like hell. "If that was the second test, the third one can't be far behind."

"Didn't the page say something about once the curse breaking begins, there's only limited time until it ends again?" Betty inquires when they're striding down the street, Veronica's heels making clipping sounds that echo on the dark, empty street.

"We need to hurry." Veronica agrees.

"Wait, one more thing-" Betty grabs Veronica's hand and pulls her towards her. Veronica barely manages to catch herself on Betty's shoulder before Betty tilts her head and kisses Veronica sweetly on the mouth.

There's something shocking about it, and, yet, Veronica sinks into it; kissing Betty slowly under the streetlight. It may be the leftover adrenaline, but kissing Betty feels like she's running a marathon, or being doused in water. There so little going on, yet she doesn't know where to focus.

The way Betty's holding her hand, or the way she's cupping Veronica's chin? The way their chests are pressed so close that Veronica can feel Betty's heartbeat thumping into her own chest, or the brush of Betty's nose on Veronica's cheek?

Betty pulls away, and Veronica thinks time must have stopped - or sped up - because she has no idea how much time has passed, and she's not clear on how much she cares. Veronica reaches up and touches her mouth.

It's not like she's never been kissed before, but she's never been kissed the way Betty just kissed her before.

"Betty?" She asks and the blonde looks sheepish.

"I'm sorry..." She murmurs, not really looking that sorry at all, if the way her cheeks are pinked is anything to go by.

"Don't be." Veronica grins, cupping Betty's cheek. "I just didn't think you liked me like that."

Betty gives her a pointed look, and laughs a little at the seriousness of it. "Then why did you take me on a date?"

Veronica considers this, visibly as Betty giggles. She says, "When you put it that way."

Betty takes her hand again and tugs her gently down the road, again. "Let's go."

"You know," Veronica begins, conversationally, as they speed walk to the fairly useless traffic lights at the intersection of Raspberry and Woodhouse. "After you died in the dream, Archie took Jughead and I out to his pickup while your house was burning down, and as we were about to drive into a tree, Jughead did almost the same thing to Archie that you did to me. He was like, 'wait' and grabbed Archie's bowtie and kissed him."

Betty hums in response, "I spend too much time around Jug, that's the only excuse I have."

~

"Are you two okay?" Asks the Freshman waitress. Jughead looks up to see her, standing beside them, with an unimpressed look on her face. _Shake, Rattle, and Roll_ is playing on the jukebox. Everyone's looking at them.

Fair. They are standing in the middle of a walkway, hugging and crying.

"Uh," Jughead and Archie pull away from each other, making brief eye-contact and flushing, and Archie clears his throat. "Yeah, we're fine. Can we get our bill?"

The Freshman rolls her eyes. "Sure, man."

Jughead exhales shakily and wipes his eyes clear. They wait until they've payed and walked down the street a little before turning to each other.

Jughead pushes Archie into a tree. "Why did you do that to me?" He yells, pushing him again. "Do you know what that felt like? You forced me to kill you!"

"It was him or me." Archie replies, almost calmly, but looking vaguely relieved.

"Or me!" Jughead retorts. Archie takes his wrists in hand to stop Jughead from pushing him again.

"I wouldn't have let you do that," Archie tells him, serious to his bones, eyes searching Jughead's face, worriedly, "you know I wouldn't have-"

"Archie? Jughead?" Comes a new voice, and the two boys turn to see Kevin walking down the street towards them. "What are you guys doing out here-?"

"Kevin!" Archie cries, pulling away from Jughead. "Oh thank god, we need you to do something for us."

"We do?" Jughead inquires, curiously looking between the two.

"We do." Archie agrees.

"Is it illegal?" Kevin questions, cocking his hip out. Jughead snorts.

"No." The redhead shakes his head. "Listen; if we don't text you by four am, come to the river with your dad."

"Why?" Kevin's eyes dart between them like a game of _Eenie, Meenie, Miny, Mo._ "You guys aren't planning something bad, are you?"

"No, no," Archie laughs, though it's fake, Jughead can tell, "nothing like that. Only vaguely life-threatening, should it go wrong, and even then-"

"-Jesus Christ-" Jughead mutters under his breath.

"-come to the river with my dad if one of you doesn't text me by four?" Kevin finishes.

"Yep." Archie says, popping the 'P'.

"Done." The brunette nods, and begins walking towards Pop's. "Don't hurt yourselves."

"Can't promise anything, Kev." Archie calls.

"What was that?" Jughead asks as they continue down the street, towards the edge of town.

Archie shrugs, hair shining like polished copper under the streetlamps. "You said it yourself; the witch knows, so let's head to the river."

"You don't think that's dangerous?" It's a rhetorical question, but Archie answers it anyway.

"I just got shot in the head," he points out, and Jughead winces at the fresh memory, "I'm running on adrenaline at this point."

"Fair." Jughead agrees. "I'll let the girls know."

~

**3:12 am**

on our way to lookout point 17

**3:14 am**

y?

**3:15 am**

stuff happened, meet us there

**3:16 am**

on our way

**3:16 am**

okay.

~

They've only been at the lookout point for about ten minutes before Veronica and Betty come running into view. Veronica's carting her heels by the straps, an obvious sign that she just wants the night to end already.

"Thank god you guys are okay," Betty pants. Jughead passes her a bottle of water from his backpack. "Listen, the page in the curse dictates that there will be three tests we have to go through to prove ourselves worthy of breaking it. Ronnie and I just experienced the second one, we think. It was nuts-"

"Flying books, a library maze, _The Wizard of Oz-"_ Veronica cuts in.

"And anyway, we came to warn you." Betty finishes, having gulped down half the water, and passed the bottle to Veronica.

Jughead and Archie share a look. "I think the third test came and went." Archie says.

The two girls freeze. And converge on them like ants. "Oh god, are you okay? What did the sitch make you do?"

"I did something terrible to Archie that could have possibly ended his life if it had been real to escape from Nightmare Pop's." Jughead drawls, like he hadn't been yelling about it minutes before the girls had shown up.

Archie snorts. "'Possibly life-threatening'," is something he seems to find hilarious.

Veronica looks like she's about to inquire further and then seems to think better of it. "Anyway," she continues, "the fine print says there's got to be a specific combination of bloods to break the curse, and Betty and I think we have it worked out."

"Oh yeah?" Jughead murmurs.

"Yeah. So, there's got to be _one of free blood, one of caged, one of new blood, one of aged._ Obviously, I'm Free Blood, because I just came into town." The boys nod in agreement. "Betty is my partner, and also, therefore, Caged Blood-"

"Because my mom barely lets me out of the house, nowadays. It was a miracle I made it out tonight." Betty interrupts. Veronica looks rueful, but not angry, so the explaination goes on.

"Continuing on, Jughead is New Blood, and Archie is Aged Blood-" Veronica recites.

"Wait, wait, wait. I'm aged blood?" Archie interrupts. Veronica and Betty look between each other and then turn to him, nodding. "That makes no sense. If anyone here's aged blood, it's Jug. He's got this dusty air about him all the time."

"Hey!" Jughead seems to think this is something to take offence of.

"Why does it really matter?" Veronica whispers.

"So that we know which order to drip four drops of each blood into the river in. That's how you summon the witch to break the curse. If we get it wrong, God knows what'll happen." Betty whispers back.

"But it doesn't make any sense!" Archie protests. "Sure, Betty and Ron are free and caged, but how can you be new and I be aged?"

"Because, Archie," Jughead tells him, calmly, "we're all new souls, young, unknowing of the world, unsure."

"And you're saying I'm not?" The redhead looks conflicted. "I slept with a teacher nearly two decades older than me, and I believed she loved me! I let her convince me that we'd both go to jail for what she did to me! I'm stupid and naïve!"

"No, you're not." Jughead refutes the comment.

"Yes, I am!" Archie fights back.

"Archie, stop being an idiot about this." Betty snaps, pulling the other three teenagers focus over to her.

"Betty-" Veronica attempts to stop her, but the blonde puts a hand on her arm and shrugs.

"No hang on, Ronnie." She says, and turns to Archie. "You have an old soul, Archie. You're kinder than any of us, you want the best for everyone, you're willing to protect those you're close to."

"You think we come across people like that a lot?" Jughead continues, obviously shouldering Betty's load. "Do you think there's anyone else in town who would actually take a bullet rather than watch me or our fathers be shot? No one's like you, Archie. No one’s quite as different as you in this mess of a town."

"Wait, what bullet?" Betty questions.

"It doesn't matter." Archie waves the question away, seeing Jughead still watching Archie, carefully.

"I think it does." The dark boy says. "Archie, your family is tied to the roots of this town. They've been here for geberations. My family moved here with my grandfather. I'm the newest here."

"Guys we don't have much time and we still don't know exactly which order to drip the four drops of blood into the river or whatever." Veronica reminds them, glancing at the time on her phone.

"Archie, you've just gotta believe us." Jughead says, clutching the redheads hands.

Archie nods, fractionally. "...okay. Hopefully this works."

"It probably will." Betty informs him. "Ron, Free Blood, you get to go first. Four drops, remember." The blonde tells the raven-haired girl, handing her a knife from her bag.

"I'm not even gonna asked ju you able this," Veronica mutters, walking towards the water, the other three teenagers in tow begins her.

The proceedings aren't very long, Archie finds, but hat might just be because he can't actually see them.

"Your turn, Betty, Caged Blood." Veronica announces, handing the blade back to Betty, who takes Veronica's place by the mildly-tainted water.

It's over quickly.

"Jughead, New Blood." Betty murmurs, sounding very formal.

Archie doesn't watch Jughead, either, feeling too squeamish after the events of the night, already.

"Archie, Aged Blood." Jughead says, handing him the knife.

He pushes the point of the blade against his fingertip and looks away as the blood hits the water.

"What now?" Archie inquires.

"Now? Now we wait." Betty says, and Arche bites his lip, settling in for the long haul.

~

"Fred Andrews." Fred almost jumps in fright at the sudden voice. He calms once he sees Alice Cooper standing by his car.

"Alice." He replies. "What are you doing hanging around my car?"

"Betty is five hours late for her curfew." Alice responds, as if it's relevant to the topic. Fred doesn't have time for this.

"And you're only just now going to look for her?" It's been a long night, and now he has to put up with Alice Cooper, out on the curb.

The blonde woman shrugs in her little white cardigan, looking every bit the Angel she pretends to be. "She's been doing a rebellious thing for weeks. I figured I'd give her time to cool off." Ah, typical Alice. Leave the problem alone and see if it gets better without her.

"And how does this concern me?" Fred inquires. He's getting impatient.

"It doesn't concern you. It concerns your son." Not fucking this again.

"You think Betty's upstairs with Archie." He says. She shrugs again.

"Wouldn't put it past him." Fred's blood boils.

"Oh my, god. Look, I may not have protected my son from that horrible woman, but you don't get to pin the blame on him." He shouts and Alice looks terribly taken aback. Good. No one fights back against Alice Cooper anymore. They're all smart enough to know they'd lose. Fred sighs, calming. "Alice, Archie's gone off the grid too. And Hermione says Veronica's gone."

Alice bites her lips, suddenly all mother. "You don't think they've run away?"

"Did you see anything of Betty's missing?" Fred asks her, seriously. Alice shakes her head.

"Fair point. Where'd you think they went?" He catches a glimpse of the girl he used to be friends with, in this worried woman, standing out on the curb.

Fred shakes his head. "Couldn't tell you."

"You're driving." Alice tells him, rounding his car to the passenger seat.

"I always did, Alice." Fred sighs, slamming the pickup door closed.

~

It's only been about five minutes since they did the whole blood-dripping thing and nothing has happened. Betty passed around bandages and they're all cleaned up.

If the curse had been broken, it did so very quietly.

The sloshing sound of water around feet sounds and all four teenagers turn to see-

"Ethel?" Veronica questions. The ginger girl is emerging from the river, dressed a little fancier than usual, completely dry.

"Surprise." She says, grinning. There's no mistaking what's going on here.

"What the fuck." Archie still swears.

"So I'm the witch. Ta-da! Well done, you guys! Really!" Ethel praises, clapping her velvet-gloved hands together.

"Am I hallucinating?" Betty asks.

"Don't think so, unless we're doing another 50's Scary Robot Housewife test." Veronica replies, licking her lips and looking back to Ethel.

"Yeah, that was a good one, wasn't it?" Ethel murmurs, looking a little sidetracked. She glances back to them and grins wider. "No one’s ever actually escaped it properly until you guys. I was very impressed."

"You mean other people have tried?" Betty says, glancing to the others. They all look just as dumbfounded.

"Oh, definitely." The witch tells them. "You think you guys are the first bunch of teenagers to go snooping about the curse? You're as bad as the original Scooby Gang."

"Who was in that group?" Jughead inquires, definitely interested. Ethel shrugs, kicking a rock into the river.

"Freddy Andrews, FP Jones, Alice Cooper, and little Hermione Lodge, back when they were all your age." She lists, a little bored.

"They tried?" Veronica whispers. Ethel gives her a sad look.

"And they payed the price for failing. They forgot it ever happened, and have lived miserable lives with only small glimpses of happiness." She informs the raven-haired girl. Veronica purses her lips, and stands straighter.

"Can we fix that?" Veronica demands.

"Of course." Ethel replies. "When you break the curse."

Archie raises his bandaged hand, like he's in elementary school. "Didn't we just do that?"

"What?" Ethel cries and bursts into laughter. "No! Oh my god, you guys are a _riot!_ You think blood's enough?"

"Is it?" Betty asks, meekly. Ethel's laughter ceases, and she sucks her cheeks in, deep in thought.

"I actually don't know." Ethel says. "No one’s ever gotten this far before."

"Oh." Jughead mutters. "So, what do we need to do, oh mighty witch?"

Ethel grins at him with that little 'you were always my favourite' smile that old people all seem to have perfected. "Well..." She hums, "you guys have really tried your hardest for this cause. But maybe not quite enough."

"Seriously?" Archie cries. "I shot myself in the head earlier this evening!"

"You _what?"_ Betty demands, turning to the redhead with a shocked look. Veronica has a similar expression on.

"Calm down, Betts I'm fine." Archie reassures her. Ethel watches the proceedings with an unreadable face.

"Don't take all the credit, Boy Wonder. I helped." Jughead butts in. The shocked gazes fall on him and Archie bumps Jughead's shoulder with his own.

"Look," Ethel interrupts. "I think, what I need from you four, is something of great importance, each. As a final test."

"Another test?" Jughead sighs. "Haven't we done enough?"

"This curse comes in fours, Mr Jones." Ethel states, suddenly all business. "Now, to the objects of great importance. Let's begin with Miss Lodge."

Veronica reaches up behind her neck and unclamps her necklace, handing it off to the witch. "Take my pearls. They've been in the family for generations."

"Nice. Miss Cooper?" Ethel turns to the blonde.

Betty pulls a small leather pouch from her bag. "The rest of my family's magic. There's only a pinch left, but even I know that's enough to start an earthquake."

"A noble submission, indeed. Mr Jones?" Jughead rummages in his own bag for a moment.

"Hang on. There's a picture in my bag, of me and my sister. It's the only thing of hers that I have." He gives it to Ethel who thumbs the crease down the middle with a soft smile before pocketing it with Betty and Veronica's objects. "If I give it to you, can my mother come home again, to bring my family back together?"

"Most definitely." Ethel agrees.

"Done. Take it." Jughead stands back up, resigned that the picture is gone.

"Mr Andrews." Archie frowns. "What will you give me?"

"I...I don't have anything." He says, much to Ethel's apparent disappointment. "There's nothing I can give you."

"Time is running out, Mr Andrews." Ethel informs him, gravely. "If not now, you'll have to wait another four years, and complete all tests once more."

"Why four?" He asks.

"This curse has fours all through it, I've already established this, don't ask dumb questions." She snaps, and then steps back a little.

"Um..." Archie hums and then bites his lip. "My memories. Can you take those?"

"Your memories? Hm." She puffs put her cheeks, weighing it up in her head. "I think so. Which memory in particular?"

"You'll know it when you find it." He says, not really knowing what he means, himself. He's really just hoping, at this point.

Ethel closes her eyes and touches Archie's temples with her index and middle finger. She laughs a little. "Why have you been hiding this from yourself?"

"I didn't want to get my hopes up." Archie says, and the lilt at the end makes it almost a question.

"Does Mr Jones know that you did that?" Archie knows the memory is of Jughead, that it's dark, and that it's a nice one. That's all he knows.

"No." He tells her. There's a tingling feeling in his mind, and whatever memory he'd offered up is gone now, taken.

"Good enough for me." She says. "You've all done spectacularly, really, I'm very impressed."

"Ethel-" Betty begins and Ethel shushes her.

"Hush now. Gotta break a curse."

There's silence as Ethel strides to the edge of the river and clicks her fingers. She sighs happily after a moment and turns to them, a bright grin on her face.

"Is that it?" Veronica asks, loudly.

"We're you expecting fireworks?" Ethel responds.

Veronica shrugs under her cape. "Kinda."

Ethel bops Veronica's nose with her index finger. "Tough luck, Miss Lodge." Then, she turns to all of them. "Now, I think you all need a quick rest up. I'm sure all your parents are looking for you."

The witch clicks her fingers again, and Archie hardly has the time to utter a syllable before he feels himself drowsily falling to the sand of the bank of the river.

~

"D'you need a ride home?" FP asks as they step out of the bar at near 4 in the morning.

"And risk being seen with you?" Cheryl snorts, pulling her scarf on. "I'll pass."

"Considering where you are, where you live, and the fact that you spilled your guts to me, earlier, I don't really think you have much to lose." He points out, depositing Jellybean in the backseat and putting her seatbelt on.

FP turns back to Cheryl, sees her turn it over in her head. She purses her lips.

"...Fine." She relents. "But you're dropping me off down the street."

"I'm dropping you off at the gates. There's a murderer on the loose, and you're more worried about appearances than your safety?" FP replies, closing her door after her. "To Thornhill we go."

"You know how to get there?" Cheryl asks, as they pull out of the gravel parking lot.

"Who doesn't?" FP replies, turning on his blinker for all the good it does for the empty street.

"Touché." Cheryl responds. The questionable music choices for the late night/early morning radio fills the silence between them as they drive. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Would you believe me if I told you it was because I saw a little of myself in you?" FP inquires, conversationally, turning the high-beams on.

"I'd tell you that's creepy." Cheryl says, nonchalantly. FP plays off the almost-fondness in her time as sleep-deprivation.

"I just want to not fuck up for a moment." He admits, hearing rustling in the backseat, and wincing at his volume. "If that means I'm doing right by someone, keeping them safe, and making them feel safe? Good enough for me."

Silence falls again, more comfortable this time. Then-

"Turn around." Jellybean says, from the backseat.

"Go back to sleep, Sythia." FP replies, adjusting the rear ire mirror, to see her dead-set expression for himself. "We're just dropping Cheryl home and then you can go to bed."

"Turn around, right now, dad." The ten year-old repeats, voice hard. FP glances back at her, sees how ramrod straight her back is.

He frowns. "Sythia, I'm not putting up with your weird psychic shit right now-"

"It's Jughead." She interrupts. Cheryl looks a little freaked out, herself, at their conversation.

"What happened?" FP asks, hands curling tight around the steering wheel.

"He's in trouble." Jellybean grimaces. "He's in pain."

"Where is he?" The answer comes almost immediately.

"Lookout Point 17, Sweetwater River." She tells him. He calculates the distance in his head.

"Hold onto something, I'm flipping a bitch." He warns and watches his daughter grab the handle above her head, jaw set, wide brown eyes almost black in the darkness of the car.

"You're _what?"_ Cheryl shrieks, grabbing the handle above her head, free hand curled right around her seatbelt.

"Canadian term. I'm making a U-turn. Hold on." FP turns the wheel and the tires screech in protest.

It's been ages since he's done anything like this.

~

"Ethel." The girl - well, woman, really - turns.

"Archibald." Ethel responds. "You really should be waking up."

"There's something I need to ask." Archie says.

"What?" Ethel crosses her arms, cocks her hip.

"My blood," he shakes his head as he says it, "I don't understand how I could be the one with aged blood. There's nothing wise about me."

She smiles a little. "You think being old makes you wise?" Ethel inquires. "I've been alive for I don't know how long and I'm still making mistakes and learning from them. Your family is of old blood, Archibald Andrews, special blood. It's why your father tried so hard to break the curse before you. Because he was kind and had centuries of determination in his blood, determination he passed down to you." He frowns as she makes to leave.

"Ethel." Archie says again.

"Archibald." Ethel sighs.

"One more thing. Why did you make the curse if you didn't really want it there in the first place?"

"You want the truth?" She questions.

Archie nods.

"I was bored." Ethel shrugs. Archie laughs.

~

Fred and Alice pull up at the river bank only moments after the Sheriff and his son. Alice's already out of the car by the time Fred's actually stopped the engine.

"Oh my god, Betty, _sweetie-"_ she's saying, as she reached one of the four prone bodies lying on the shore.

Fred rushes to his sons side, immediately taking his pulse and feeling relieved at the steady beat he finds.

The Sheriff looks over Fred and Alice and the kids as another car pulls up, tires screeching on the gravel. Next thing Fred knows, FP and Jellybean Jones are sprinting across the shore towards Jughead's stiff (breathing) body.

"What the hell is going on here?" FP demands, skidding to his knees by Jughead.

Kevin and his father move to look over the only unaccompanied teenager - Veronica, Fred winces.

"I couldn't tell you, Ef." The Sheriff replies, just as Veronica comes gasping back to consciousness, sitting bolt upright on the sand, clutching at her neck, as if looking to find her absent pearl necklace.

"I'm leaving, right now." Alice announces, attempting to haul Betty into an upright position and completely misjudging her weight.

Cheryl, who just emerged from FP's car - God knows why, but Fred doesn't want to - rushes to Alice's side in an attempt to help the blonde woman, but is shrugged away.

And then Archie's gasping and lurching away from Fred, scrambling across the sand so hastily that he leaves indents.

Next up is Betty, awakening suddenly, with all her weight on her mother. Alice trembles to her knees in an attempt to keep Betty upright, continuing to fail, and Cheryl says, "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god."

"Shut up, Cheryl," Veronica calls from across the shore, being tended to by Kevin and his father, "we just broke the curse that killed your brother."

Its a very plain, very straightforward statement, that it makes all the adults, plus Kevin, stop in their tracks.

"Are you being serious?" Sheriff Keller asks.

"D'you really think we'd lie about the River Curse, Sheriff?" Betty replies and Aloce hushes her.

"This true, Archie?" Fred questions his kid. Archie nods, still quiet, eyes flicking to the raven-haired boy beside him who is still asleep.

FP seems to register this fact at the same time as Fred. "Hey, why're all your kids waking up while mine isn't?"

"Heavy sleeper?" Fred suggests, and he's only half-joking, but the look on FP's face says he's not amused.

Archie shuffles across the and towards Jughead, and brushes some hair away from his eyes. Jughead gasps back into the waking world the second Archie touches him.

He takes a moment to take everything in before zeroing on FP and lurching into him, tackling him in a fearsome hug. "Dad, oh my god, I'm so sorry." He sobs, and FP gives Fred a look that says _help,_ before hesitantly parting Jughead on the back.

"You alright? Jughead, you okay?" He asks, peeling his son from his front. Fred suddenly remembers the times he'd see FP, before things really went downhill with Gladys, when he could be seen by the river with his baby, on one of the stools at the counter at Pop's with a pram, in the supermarket, looking like a true father.

"Okay, buddy, time to get you home," FP murmurs, pulling Jughead into an upright position, on thin, shaky legs.

Jellybean rises with them, a silent spectator.

"Actually, dad," the dark-haired boy sniffs, pulling away, a little, "would you mind if I went with the Andrews's tonight?" Jughead asks, sounding small.

The look on his father's face says it all. "That's fine." He says, hugging Jughead tight and gesturing for Cheryl to follow them as he carries Jellybean back to his car.

She does.

"Would you mind making sure that Veronica gets home okay?" Fred asks the Sheriff. "I've just run out of room in my car, otherwise, I'd take her home myself."

"That's fine, Fred. Goodnight. Maybe stop letting your kids do weird shit without supervision, though?"

'Kids', plural, makes his stomach jump, but he doesn't say so to the Sheriff and his son who's leading a wary Veronica to their car.

Veronica winks over her shoulder at Betty, who flushes pink at the cheeks and neck. Fred doesn't want to know.

"Cooper's, Andrews's, and Jones's. Into the car." Fred ushers his herd to the pickup, and sighs a little. He really wants to sleep. Thank god for Saturday's.

~

"I'm still really sorry about the whole gun debacle," Archie says, meekly, once they're back home, in Archie's bedroom.

"I told you," Jughead sighs in response, "I'm fine, so long as you never do it again."

Archie nods enthusiastically, and the other boy nods as well.

"Good." Jughead states.

"Hey you gonna tell me what was up with you and your dad, earlier?" Archie questions.

"Nah," Jughead replies, waving a dismissive hand. "I'll tell you later. That's heavy stuff. For now, I'm gonna go shower." He turns, walking out of the room. "I smell like blood and crying, and I'm not putting up with that shit right now."

"Okay." Archie watches him go.

"Get some rest!" Jughead calls, and Archie heard the bathroom door close.

There's something niggling at the back of his mind, something pressing, demanding to be made known.

If he thinks too hard on it, his head hurts. It makes him think of Veronica's determined face, the way she sits straight against the bench seat of his pickup truck, behind the wheel in a laser-red pinup dress.

Makes him think of turning to look at someone in the backseat of the car, sees Jughead, left side of his face vaguely bloodstained, grab at his bow tie and pull him forward, and-

It's all too surreal to be an actual memory, but it sparks something in him, nonetheless.

It makes him feel like he needs to talk to Jughead. Right in that instance.

Archie gets up from the bed and walks down the hall to the bathroom. He knocks a little, hesitantly, and waits for the response that arrives. "Archie?"

"Can I come in?" Archie asks and the lock clicks on the door.

He twists the handle and goes inside, finding Jughead leaning against the vanity, his hat lying beside the sink, shoes off and lying by the tub, t-shirt shed into the edge of the tub itself.

Archie's eyes fix themselves on the dark bruises that are beginning to bloom on Jughead's hips.

"Where'd you get those?" He asks, closing the door quietly behind him, and leaning against it, mirroring Jughead.

"You pushed me into a table, remember? Twice." The dark boy replies, smiling a little as he looks down at the aforementioned marks.

Archie winces, the corner of his mouth twisting a little. "I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter." Jughead replies, shaking his head a little, the tips of the hair at his forehead brushing into his eyes.

"I think it does." Archie informs him. He sees a little of his own reflection over Jughead's shoulder, in the mirror, sees the dark bags under his eyes, the slump of his shoulders. No wonder Jughead told him to get some rest.

"Are you just gonna stare at me?" Jughead asks, waving a hand in front of Archie's face. "You know I stink right? You're delaying my shower. Feel free to stare at my naked chest after my shower."

"I feel bad." Archie states.

"As in sick?" Jughead peers at the redhead, touching the place just underneath the jut of his chin, tipping Archie's head up.

Archie steps towards him - the small space between them becoming smaller - and Jughead leans back against the vanity again. "As in guilty." Archie tells him. "About hurting you. Making you do what I made you do."

"Well," Jughead looks away, a small smile gracing the corner of his mouth, "you aren't actually dead, and I might not like the whole situation itself, but that's on Ethel, not you, and at least you're still here."

"I don't want you to bruise. That's just more pain you don't deserve." At this earnest confession, Jughead actually laughs. 'Scoffs' would be a better word to describe the action, were it not for the sheer incredulity that is set deep into it.

"And what are you gonna do about that, pray tell?" The dark boy questions, planting one of his socked feet between Archie's. "Kiss them better?"

"Don't tempt me." Archie says, feeling the worry drain from him.

"Uh-huh. Likely." Jughead puts his hands on Archie's shoulders and pushes, softly. Archie sinks to his knees, eyes level with his hips.

The dark bruises seem starker here, so much more detailed.

Here, the pale skin crosses into shadow, here blue veins, deep beneath his flesh, disappear behind the memory of pain.

"Well?" Comes Jughead's playful voice, high above his head, far past the clouds. "Kiss 'em better, Andrews. I don't have all day."

"I can give you all day." Archie says to him, feeling the cold of the tiles on his knees, through his jeans.

"Just today?" Jughead sounds on the verge of laughter. It's a stark contrast when compared to Archie's earnest feeling.

"I'd give you forever, if I could." He says, reaching up to put his hands on Jughead's sides. The boy above him shivers a little at the contact.

"I hope that isn't a euphemism." He says, but the laughter is gone, just soft humour, anticipation.

"Only if you want it to be." Archie assures him, hands sliding down to grip at Jughead's hips, the hem of his jeans only slightly obscuring the marks.

"You haven't even touched me." Jughead breathes, and Archie gives up the game, leaning forward and pressing his lips to one such mark.

He works his way across them, dragging his lips across the skin, holding Jughead just tight enough against the vanity that he can pull away, should he want to, but to keep him from moving for the moment.

Jughead makes a soft sound, almost a sigh, almost a moan, as Archie moves up to his stomach.

Archie inches up Jughead's torso, kissing softly up his ribs, collar, neck, until he's hovering just over Jughead's lips.

Jughead's eyes are crossed as he tries to look Archie in the eyes.

"If you don't kiss me right now," Jughead breathes, and he doesn't even need to be that loud, they are so close, "I'm going to push you into the wall and give you a bruise that I can kiss better and give me a reason to kiss you."

Archie laughs a little, and Jughead shivers again. "That seems overly complicated."

"That's me, Archie." Jughead says, and closes his eyes when Archie finally kisses him.

He hates to exaggerate, but it feels like one of those moments of perfection that seem to only be properly experienced in memories of childhood that are often too faded to properly grasp for long.

It seems like nothing will ever top this. Jughead kisses him sweetly, slowly, touching Archie's chin in such away that Archie tilts his head, and Jughead deepens it.

Archie reaches up to hold Jughead's face in both his hands and Jughead threads his arms around Archie's neck.

Archie doesn't know how to feel.

Archie feels the niggling feeling again, but ignores it in favour of Jughead's tongue making a sudden appearance in his mouth.

He really doesn't know when it ends, but one moment blends into another, and they're just stand their, pressed against each other.

"Archie?" Jughead whispers, draped over his shoulders.

Archie's staring at the reflection of his back, freckled and pale in the mirror.

"Yeah?" He whispers back.

"Thank you, for stopping me from blowing my dads brains out." Jughead pulls back, arms still around Archie's neck, far enough away to see Archie clearly. "You gave me so much material for future nightmares, but I'm still thankful."

"Can I kiss you again?" Archie whispers. Jughead grins.

"Do you really have to ask?" He replies.

"God, how cliché are you?"

"Terribly." The dark boy states. "You love it."

"I love you." Archie says, an odd parody of their scene in the diner, and of Star Wars itself.

Jughead seems to sober for a minute. "I know."

"Kiss me, you nerd." And Jughead does.

The memory comes slamming into his mind like a semi truck and Archie lurches away.

Jughead stares at him. "What the fuck was that?"

Archie runs a hand through his hair. "I remember something."

"Yeah?" The other boy prompts.

"You kissing me in the back of the pickup, in the dream."

Jughead flushes. "Well," and he clears his throat, looking embarrassed, but happy, "jinkies."

~

"Did we ever actually figure out who killed Jason?" Betty asks, on Monday. They're back in _The Blue and Gold,_ back where they started (sort of).

"You know what?" Veronica's in the comfortable stolen swivel chair this time. "No, we didn't, and at this point it doesn't even matter because we know he was cursed in the first place."

"So, it was someone under the influence of the curse?" Archie asks, staring at the murder board from where he's seated between Jughead's legs, against the desk.

Jughead nods, leaning back with his hands flat on the desk top. "Most definitely."

"Sweet." Archie says.

There's silence for a moment. And then-

"So, if this is our thing now, how about the Maple Curse?" Betty suggests.

Veronica turns on the blonde. "The _what?"_

**Fin.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THAT'S ALL FOLKS *The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down begins playing*
> 
> (JK I'm writing a side piece about the parents because that moment with FP and Alice in 1x10 was too good to pass up)
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please feel free to leave a comment and/or a kudos, and track me down on Tumblr @nose-coffee.
> 
> If you'd like to see some other quality content, check out @oopsiwroteathing, @angeburger, @Lyxxie, and @nimmieamee. All of their works are amazing and they deserve so much recognition.
> 
> Again, thank you!

**Author's Note:**

> What the fuck, alright.
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, so far. If you did, please feel free to leave a comment and/or a kudos, and track me down on Tumblr @nose-coffee.
> 
> The next chapter should be up soon, do not fret.


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